For all the chatter about conservatives and Tea Partiers trying to take over the Republican Party by becoming precinct executives, the person who is perhaps the most prominent local conservative lost his race.

Amid the pages and pages of results from the May 4 primary election is the news that attorney Chris Finney, a leader of the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST), was defeated in his bid for a seat on the Hamilton County Republican Party’s Central Committee.

Digging Ohio's primary election today. Everyone's expecting low turn-out, which only makes your vote even more valuable. If you're not sure what's on the ballot, check out CityBeat's roundup of election coverage for background on the U.S. Senate Democratic primary, the Democratic and Republican primaries for Hamilton County Commissioner, Issue 1 and more.

Dogging David Krikorian, running today in the Democratic primary for the 2nd Congressional District against Surya Yalamanchili and Jim Parker for the right to face incumbent Rep. Jean Schmidt in the fall. MSNBC's Keith Olbermann named Krikorian his "Worst Person in the World" a few days ago for suggesting that Indian-American Yalamanchili's name is too foreign-sounding to win an election.

The Ohio Elections Commission today dismissed a complaint filed by Cincinnati Tea Party founder Mike Wilson against his Republican primary opponent in the race for the 28th Ohio House District seat. Wilson had filed a complaint with the commission contesting statements used in a telephone poll recently conducted by Tom Weidman’s campaign.

Despite numerous examples of intolerance and hatred at its events and multiple polls showing the group represents only a small minority of the populace, the noisy Tea Party movement continues to gain an unwarranted amount of media attention as it strives for respectability.

CityBeat first wrote about the Springboro Tea Party last month, detailing the agenda for a rally planned Saturday that’s heavy with speakers from the John Birch Society and movies about far-right conspiracy theories.

Now the Tea Party leader organizing the event, Brian “Sonny” Thomas, is under fire for racist and vulgar comments he posted on Twitter, which has prompted several politicians to cancel their appearances at the rally.

Although Fox News hasn’t touted the results so far on any of its shows, a poll by the ultra-conservative cable TV network found that the public views President Obama and the Internal Revenue Service more favorably than the Tea Party movement.

The Tea Party might be good at organizing rallies outside the Capitol building in Washington and staging rallies at Fountain Square, but just how pervasive is the group’s views among the American people?

Just when you think the tactics of far-right health care reform opponents can’t get any worse, they do.

Today’s issue of The Whistleblower – a gossipy Web-based newsletter – published the home address of U.S. Rep. Steve Driehaus (D-Price Hill), who voted in favor of the recent health care reform bill. The newsletter suggests opponents stage a protest at his house on Sunday.